This wasn't the sort of place that Khloros would normally be wandering, but he was still gradually exploring the newly-opened caves. He was taking his time with it, savoring the new experiences with the artistic appreciation of an aesthete, yet the aloof detachment of a monk. He saw it as though he stood apart from it, because he felt that he did; this was not, in his mind (and had never been) his world.

So when he found a shimmering door, naturally he approached, staring--nostrils flaring--and then tried to push his head through it. As it turned out, the thing was one-way--shoving him back, an impenetrable wall, as if he were a fly pushing at the wrong side of a vacuum.

He strained for a time, though honestly the door was far too small for a horse regardless--and then he gave up, and simply stared at it, wondering.

What had been here? And why? A glance around showed him that Gemini was the same, otherwise, as last he'd seen it--bar the few Lessers cowering farther in distant corners. "You're all right," he kindly informed a clinging crystal bat, tone reassuring. It settled, albeit only a little.

He then shifted his gaze back to the rift, and around.

What created you? And why? he wondered.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

The door did not, in fact, answer.

And nothing passed through it.

It continued to softly whirl, offering nothing--neither answers, nor mysterious gifts.

Yellow wasn't quite sure why they'd chosen to come here, instead of heading straight back to Eridanus like they'd planned. The kaleidoscope tied around their neck, although secure, was starting to feel quite heavy, and Yellow thought maybe they should've put it back in its box to carry it. Instead, they'd left the outer boxes for both the kaleidoscope and the music box back in the cold mountain room, and it was a bit too late to go back now.

But they'd seen a new tunnel on their way through Polaris, and it was so sparkly and crystalline and pretty that they'd simply had to check it out. So, here they were, in the room of mirrors. Was it worth it?

Weeeeeeeell, maybe? On a normal day, they'd have said yes for sure. But carrying their gifts around had made them pretty tired. Not that they were ungrateful! They wouldn't dream of it. No, the kaleidoscope and wrapping paper and sparkling gold ribbons were all gorgeous, and the music box was HANDS DOWN THE BEST THING IN THESE CAVES, and Yellow could not be more grateful for them all.

But... maybe they should rest a little more now.

There was a big Gembound with hooves up ahead. It was black, like big brother Sebby had been, and Yellow thought they might try to become friends with this one, too. They walked toward the horse while winding up their newly acquired music box. Nothing like some nice atmospheric music to make a good first impression, right?

"Hi there!" the lemur chirped to the chime of their music box, once they were close enough. "What are you looking at?"

@Khloros

Khloros turned, half-alarmed and half-quizzical, at the sudden clockwork noise approaching. It took him a moment to recognize what he was seeing: a small fuzzy thing, carrying... something small, relatively square and wholly unrecognizable in its hands. For a moment Khloros tensed, wondering if it might be a weapon, but as he took two swift steps back the little one spoke.

And it was friendly.

The black horse relaxed a little, dipping his head down--closer, but not so it would break into Yellow's personal space, really--and offered a blow of warm air through his nostrils in greeting. Ears swept forward as he peered down.

"Hello," he answered, after a moment--and then hesitated. Ahh. It seemed conversation wasn't coming easy--he had been hiding away in a swamp for cycles, and his time before that hadn't quite been... average. He tried his best, though, struggling to find friendly, unthreatening words to offer to the stranger. "I am looking at this--I don't know what it is," he admitted, blinking back to it. "I think it must be magic, but I don't know what sort. I've never been here before." He'd come here through Polaris, and then back around, via Leo.

"May I ask--what that thing is?" Khloros added, peering down at the little music box with interest.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow

Totally unaware of the black horse's initial wariness, Yellow scampered the last few steps toward him, smiling so hard their mouth began to ache faintly. The horse was so pretty! His coat was glossy and clean and the long hair on his neck and tail were so thick and soft looking! They giggled softly as the horse puffed air in their direction. His nostrils looked so soft-

"Oh! Magic?" Yellow asked, setting down their music box and untying the kaleidoscope from their neck so they could clamber up to the crystal alcove and take a look at it themselves, chattering all the while. "I've never been here before, either! There's a lot of places I haven't been; the world is so much bigger than I thought - well, not that I thought it was small in the first place. Have you been to the room with a whole bunch of plants, with a pair of water pools in the back? That's the first place I've been to, and I thought that was big! Oh you're totally right it does look magic-" They promptly tried to stick a hand through the shimmering colors, only to be repelled. "Actually, this looks a lot like the tube I got! Down there-" they pointed to the kaleidoscope. "If you look through it, you see a bunch of colors and shapes, like the swirly colors in here!"

They jumped back down from the crystal wall, picking up the kaleidoscope and offering it to the horse. They gave no mind to the question of how he would hold it with a hoof, instead moving on to the horse's question: "I got it from another cave! I got all of these from the same cave! It was really pretty and there were rainbows in the sky, but also super cold so I couldn't stay there. They were gifts, I think, wrapped in boxes and tied with these ribbons. This one's magic makes it sound all pretty, see, and the tubes magic makes it look pretty! And I kept the ribbons, too. Actually - I've got two ribbons! Would you like one? I bet you'd look even prettier if you had some yellow in your neck hair!"

@Khloros

Yellow was talking--a lot--and Khloros was torn between warming to them and being a little flustered by their enthusiastic energy. They tore through topics and he briefly struggled to keep up. His mental notes looked something like this: the stranger was small, but exploring; they were asking if he'd seen what sounded like Eridanus; yes, the portal looked magic; the tube-thing had colors in it-

(Here, Khloros dipped his head down, obedient and bemused, trying to press one eye as best he could to the opening. Assuming Yellow continued to hold it--and could hold it high enough--perhaps he'd get a decent view of the kaleidoscope of colors.)

...-They were still speaking: gifts were lying around another cave, and this cave was very cold but very pretty with rainbows in the sky, and there were--ribbons?

Khloros blinked, finally given a gap to speak. He took a moment to formulate an answer, struggling to run back over his mental notes to respond to everything he could. "I--think the cave you mean is Eridanus, the place with plants, water. Yes, I've been there," he began. His voice was soft, distant, his tone both slightly aloof and a little warm, as if he still were unsure about opening up entirely. Truth be told, it was just a lot at once. "That is--an interesting tube. It does sort of seem like the same magic, maybe; and I have not heard of the cold cave. May I ask how you get there? Were there more of these things?" It was distant curiosity that prompted him to ask. As far as he knew, he'd seen all the new places, but apparently he'd somehow missed one or two. "Ahh--you can put the ribbon on me if you like? I don't mind, but you could keep it. May I ask your name?" he added, and then hesitated--had he missed a name in the barrage of words? (It hadn't really been that much of a barrage; but Yellow seemed young and eager to speak and Khloros was too used to long solitude.) "I'm sorry if you gave it. I am not used to... talking. I haven't talked in a long time," he admitted.

A pause, and then--kindly--he added, "My 'neck hair' is called a mane." There: a helpful tidbit and an actual, if still bemused, addition to the conversation.

Khloros shifted his head to peer sidelong at the portal, again. What could make such a thing-? And, perhaps more importantly, why?

Is it you? he wondered, abruptly; Have you come at last?

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow

When the horse leaned down, Yellow rose onto their tiptoes to lift the kaleidoscope to his eye with both hands, turning it as they held it up so that the colors inside could swirl like the colors in the crystal alcove. "You know Eridanus!" they beamed, and dropped back onto four legs to set down the kaleidoscope down when it seemed the other Gembound had gotten a good look through it. "I love Eridanus! Oh, and to get to the cold cave you go through the tunnel with wooden planks on the floor to Polaris, the room with moss and fungi that glow! Then you find the tunnel that's really icy and kind of narrow, and it's got cold wind blowing through it too sometimes. It's pretty short, though! And yeah, there were lots of these!" At least, Yellow assumed there were a lot. They'd seen several more brightly-wrapped boxes on their way out of the cave, so there were probably even more placed around the room!

"If you're gonna look for them, they're pretty easy to spot-- all of them are covered with this nice red, white, and green wrapping. Uh - can you unwrap things?" The horse's feet didn't seem very dexterous. So they'd have to tie in this ribbon for him! Yellow tilted their head thoughtfully at the horse, trying to decide how to get up to his mane. They could probably jump! That looked like a reasonable enough jump. And jump they did, a single golden ribbon wrapped around their fingers. Assuming Khloros let them, they would thread the ribbon through his mane, tying a golden bow and double-knotting it.

Name? Oh! They didn't know each other's names yet! "I'm Yellow! And you?"

@Khloros

The black horse dipped his head for the jump, twitching in surprise but managing not to bolt. He waited patiently as the sifaka--Yellow, apparently--twined the ribbon in his mane. "Thank you for the directions--Yellow." And then he paused, for a moment.

There was a reason he was reluctant to give out his name. He mostly hid in Cetus and he feared, still, Astraea finding him alone. He did not doubt that the Master might kill him on sight and might, at the very least, gloat and then kill him if he offered any retort. (Which he definitely would.) Still, he hadn't hidden his name yet and it was impolite to not offer something in return. "My name is Khloros. But I would not tell others that you met me. Some might not like it. They might judge you for it." He didn't quite explain this, quickly moving on. "Where were you heading, Yellow? Do you live near here?"

And then he peered back toward the portal. "Have you ever seen anything like that, before?" he added. "I wonder what it's for. Who made it, and why."

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow

The lemur tilted their head, mystified. Why didn't Khloros want them to tell anyone about him? Why on earth in the caves would others judge them? After a moment, they decided that this was a mystery that was best or to think about too much, like the mystery of how their kaleidoscope and music box worked or who made and gift-wrapped them. They could just focus on the results, like:
1. Now they had some awesome gifts to enjoy and share!
2. They had a name to call Khloros by!
The rest didn't really matter too much.

"I live in Eridanus!" they said, moving on from that odd piece of advice. "But I'm going on an adventure, as a tourist and explorer! These caves are huge; I don't know if I'm ever going to cover them all! And I've never seen anything like it either, but maybe there are more of them and I just haven't been to enough places yet? Whoever made it must have really cool magic, just like whoever made the gifts I found. Maybe this is a gift, too! But it stays in one place, so anyone can come look at it." They felt a pang of longing for their big brother. They bet he would have loved this! And exploring the caves would be so much easier with him... Sebby promised... we were going to see the world together! Maybe Sebby had been sleeping, just like they had been for the past few cycles. What had Sebby's stone been like? It was red... that was all they remembered. They would wait for him to wake up! And in the meantime, they could keep an eye out for red chrysalises in Eridanus.

Actually...

"You know, you're pretty big! Do you think maybe you could carry me around, and we could explore the caves together and maybe see more stuff like this!" The lemur's eyes gleamed with excitement. "The Awesome Adventurers: Yellow and Khloros! And my big brother too, when we find him. I think he's asleep in his gem somewhere. Keep an eye out for a red chrysalis, about the size of a really big cat, 'kay?"

@Khloros

Khloros hesitated, briefly.

On the one hand, he didn't mind carrying this little one about: he imagined it tedious to travel on such tiny legs, and his were very long and anyway he wasn't doing all that much, at the moment.

On the other, in his mind, it might put Yellow in danger if someone from his past turned up. Though, in fairness, that was mostly just "Astraea" and a few stray Gembound that Khloros hadn't seen in years.

"I can carry you," he agreed, after a moment. "But if I ask you to hide or to run you must do so. Do you mind if we visit the cold place, first? You can show me the way, but I'd like to see it."

Long, black head swung to regard the portal. A gift..? "I don't know what it is." It was simply-stated; Khloros was, in truth, a little worried to find out.

The horse tilted his head a little, then, trying to see the ribbon that had been tied on his mane (and failing). "...How does it look?" he asked.


horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow